Back in the 1970s, when last-minute booking was as unthinkable as curtain rails without pelmets, the holiday advertising season was January. Then, we'd be urged to sign up for the competing attractions of Butlins or Pontin's, tempted by images of Wurlitzers, accordion-based evening entertainment, men in three-piece suits and knotted hankies in deck chairs taking in the baking summer of 1975, and children and parents enjoying rigorous sports events – trampolining, running – under the supervision of men in blazers holding whistles. With Pontin's, these were always accompanied by the hulking image of old Mr Pontin himself, attempting to look avuncular but coming across as overbearingly Orwellian. There was an open prison-like air to these camps, which suited the stoical attitude of Brits towards enjoyment.

Cut by means of time's giant wheel to 2010, and the latest Butlins ad, which, conscious of these straitened times, urges families to "come round" to the idea of holidaying with them again rather than chancing it on EasyJet. All is transformed. With not a redcoat in sight, a hotel hoves into view like an anchored starship, while state-of-the-art camera angles sweep you up staircases to chic, well-appointed dining areas and corridors that gleam with modernity. And yet there are giveaways. After an initial shot of blue skies, the scenes are all indoor ones, British summers having failed, unlike Butlins, to move with the times. Then, in the final scene, we spy a grotty green sofa in the corner of the bedroom, like spinach between the teeth; a fatal but oddly reassuring indicator of enduring naffness.